Archive for June, 2002

An aspiring model falls in love with a struggling musician when they suddenly cross paths on a NY subway train. Having achieved success as a NY model, Brier decides to move to L.A Read the rest of this entry »

“The Mexican” I saw in a theater this week was not the same movie being advertised on television. The one being advertised on television looks like a typically droll Julia Roberts/Brad Pitt romantic comedy. The one in theaters is a dark comedy in which Roberts and Pitt share only a few scenes together. Read the rest of this entry »

I love banana-nut ice cream. It’s difficult to find. I believe it is a seasonal thing. Even 31-Flavors doesn’t carry it. Several years ago a couple of my friends and I got together and created our very own brand of banana-nut ice cream. Read the rest of this entry »

A bounty hunter is on the trail of a conman who skipped bail. The two wind up in a deserted warehouse where they witness a diamond scam in action, caught in the midst they put their differences aside to team up and detain the looters. Read the rest of this entry »

That’s the premise of “Gossip,” a catchy little thriller that has unfortunately been marketed as yet another teen flick. It’s much smarter than that, and features a fabulous cast who are completely in tune with former television director Davis Guggenheim’s vision. Read the rest of this entry »

Eternal bachelor Lupo plays the comical presenter to the musical acts in his own Italian restaurant ‘Serenade Café’ in New York, but operatic singer Gina is not amused, she throws him out of her dressing room- the more she insults him, the crazier the old fool gets about her. To keep him off she insists her husband must be an opera singer, so he is easily duped by Ierra, who hits on with Gina himself and ships Lupo off to his Italian cahoot, musical teacher Marcello, for lessons- actually he is so bad that even the dog runs off, and after they bribe the local opera to give him a tiny part, the sound-tortured audience chases him for his life. He passes out but is found and taken in by a winegrowers family, which gives him confidence and a killer voice Read the rest of this entry »

I was only eleven when “Yellow Submarine” came out, so there was little interest in seeing the film when it played in theaters. I was deep into the Beatles, but only through their records and film “Help,” which I thought was a blast (at that time in my life I still hadn’t seen “A Hard Day’s Night”). Read the rest of this entry »

On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea’s direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief Read the rest of this entry »

In “City by the Sea,” Robert DeNiro plays veteran Manhattan homicide detective Vincent LaMarca, a man who put his career ahead of his marriage and relationship with his son. It’s been fourteen years since LaMarca last saw his son Joey (James Franco), now a drug-addict scouring the decrepit boardwalk of Long Beach, Long Island for his latest fix. Read the rest of this entry »

After his successful night club is blown to flaming bits, Pluto and his band travel across the moon looking for clues as to who is behind the arson. Along with Bruno and Dina, Pluto visits a seedy motel, his secret hide out and the casino of the most powerful man on the moon searching for the evil doer, only to find out that the destruction of his club may have been his own fault Read the rest of this entry »

As waves of immigrants swell the population of New York, lawlessness and corruption thrive in Manhattan’s Five Points section. After years of incarceration, young Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon returns seeking revenge against the rival gang leader who killed his father. But Amsterdam’s personal vendetta becomes part of the gang warfare that erupts as he and his fellow Irishmen fight to carve a place for themselves in their newly adopted homeland! Read the rest of this entry »

Race car driver Michael Singer (Billy Zane) and his father enter themselves in a competition—if they can break the land speed record (1000 mph), they will win 50 million dollars. Unfortunately, the other team is just as determined as they are—and even without competition, Michael faces grave physical danger just by trying. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always believed that there’s a very thin line between genius and madness. The brilliant people I know are also the most eccentric. I know how I feel after a day of multitasking. Imagine how you would feel if your mind never shut down. Read the rest of this entry »

The Grotowski home is not the house that love built. Three generations of Grotowski men live under the same roof, but they’re not really a family. There’s patriarch Buck (Peter Boyle), who laments he’s so old he “can’t even remember what a woman smells like.” Read the rest of this entry »